Comparison · 9 min read

Best AEO tools in 2026: what each one actually tracks, and what it costs

We read every price and platform list off the vendor's own site rather than trusting the roundups. Five of the nine tools here are commonly reported wrongly, always in the same direction: the ceiling capability quoted next to the floor price.

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Disclosure

Limecube is one of the tools compared here. We have tried to be useful rather than flattering: where a competitor is genuinely better, this page says so, and it says where Limecube is not the right answer. Every figure carries the date we checked it. If you are still working out what the category is, start with what AEO actually means.

How we checked

Every price and platform list below was read from the vendor’s own pricing page or documentation on 28 July 2026, with every price and plan allowance re-checked on 17 August 2026. None of it comes from a review site, and that turned out to matter more than expected. Three weeks was long enough for two of the nine to change how they sell AI visibility, so treat any figure here as worth a look before you sign.

Checking the primary sources contradicted the popular roundups on five of the nine tools, and always in the same direction: they quote what a tool can do at its highest tier next to what it costs at its lowest.

  • Profound is widely described as tracking ten engines from $99. Its $99 Starter plan tracks ChatGPT alone; nine engines is the Enterprise tier.
  • Peec supports around nine models, so it is reported as a nine-model tool. Every paid plan says “choose 3 models”. Eleven is Enterprise only.
  • SE Ranking is reported as tracking ChatGPT and AI Mode with the rest “coming soon”. Its own site lists five engines available now.
  • Semrush is reported as three engines with Gemini rolling out. Its knowledge base lists five.
  • Otterly is reported as a $29 tool. It is, but Claude costs $29 to $439 extra on top, and Gemini and AI Mode another $9 to $149.

If you take one thing from this page, take that: check the tier, not the headline. It applies to this page too, which is why every row below says which plan it describes.

What each tool actually tracks

Engine coverage is the first thing to check, because a tool cannot tell you about a surface it does not query. These are the engines each vendor lists on its own site. If you would rather measure it by hand first, our guide to tracking AI search visibility walks through doing it without any tool at all.

ToolEngines trackedClaude
Ahrefs Brand RadarAI Overviews & AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, plus YouTube, TikTok and Reddit mentions
Widest range of surfaces, adding social mentions.
No
SemrushChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, PerplexityNo
SE Ranking (SE Visible)ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode
Roundups say two. Its own site says five.
No
LimecubeChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode
Included at every tier, not sold as a module.
Yes
Peec AIChoose 3 models on Starter, Pro and Advanced. Eleven only on Enterprise
Claude only as one of your three.
Extra
ProfoundChatGPT only on Starter. Three on Growth. Up to nine on Enterprise
Nine engines is Enterprise, and so is Claude. The $99 plan is ChatGPT alone.
Extra
OtterlyAI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot
Claude costs $29 to $439 extra.
Extra

What each one costs

All figures in USD per month, billed monthly, as published on 17 August 2026. Annual billing typically saves 15 to 20% across the board.

ToolPlansAI visibility
OtterlyLite $29 · Standard $189 · Premium $489Is the product. Claude and Gemini cost extra
LimecubeStarter $35 · Professional $99 · Business $249Included at every tier
Peec AIStarter $95 · Pro $245 · Advanced $495Is the product
ProfoundStarter $99 · Growth $399 · Enterprise customIs the product. Agency plans price each client workspace at $399
SE VisibleBasic $99 · Core $189 · Plus $355Is the product
Search AtlasStarter $99 · Growth $199 · Pro $399 · Agency $999From Growth. Three platforms, five on Pro. Shared credit meter
SE RankingCore $129 · Growth $279AI Search +$89. Agency Pack +$69. API +$45
SemrushSEO $139 · Starter $199 · Pro+ $299 · Advanced $549Included in every paid tier. 50 to 200 prompts daily
AhrefsLite $129 · Standard $249 · Advanced $449 · Enterprise $1,499Brand Radar included, 5 to 20 tracked prompts. More costs extra

The interesting comparison is not the cheapest tool, it is what the same money buys. At roughly $99 a month you can have Profound Starter (ChatGPT only), SE Visible Basic (five engines, 200 prompts) or Peec Starter (three models, 50 prompts). At the same price, Limecube Professional includes six surfaces plus keyword research, content generation, rank tracking, Google Ads and client reporting for up to fifteen clients.

That is not a claim that Limecube is better at AI visibility than a tool built solely for it. Profound and Peec go deeper on prompt-level analysis than we do. It is a claim about what you are buying with the same budget.

Two of these are worth their own page. Semrush because it is the default everyone benchmarks against, and SE Ranking because its add-on stacking is the clearest example of an advertised price differing from a paid one. There is also a full breakdown of what this category costs, including what buying from Australia adds.

The Claude gap

One finding stood out. As of July 2026, Semrush, SE Ranking and Ahrefs do not list Claude among their tracked engines on their own product pages. Otterly sells it as a paid add-on. Among the big SEO suites, Claude is simply not covered.

Whether that matters depends on your audience. Claude has a smaller share of consumer search than ChatGPT, but a disproportionate share of technical, professional and developer questions, and it is the assistant embedded in a growing number of work tools. If your buyers are businesses rather than consumers, a blind spot there is worth knowing about. The mechanics of earning a mention are much the same across assistants: see how to get cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, and how to get cited in Google AI Overviews for the Google surfaces.

Limecube tracks Claude as standard. That is the one coverage claim we will make unreservedly, because it is checkable in a minute on any of those vendors' sites.

What AI visibility costs on top

Two of the three include AI search tracking in the plan. Only SE Ranking still sells it separately.

  • Semrush: included in every paid tier from $139/mo. 50 prompts daily on Starter, 100 on Pro+, 200 on Advanced.
  • Ahrefs: Brand Radar included in the core plans from $129/mo, with 5 tracked prompts on Lite, 10 on Standard, 20 on Advanced. The Ahrefs comparison works the allowance through for a client list.
  • SE Ranking: still an add-on. AI Search $89/mo on top of a $129 or $279 plan.

The allowances are what to check now rather than the line items. Twenty tracked prompts covers one brand, not fifteen clients, and going beyond the allowance is a separate purchase at both Semrush and Ahrefs.

For an agency the stacking adds up quickly. A three-person team managing fifteen clients on SE Ranking needs the Growth plan ($279), the Agency Pack for white-label reporting ($69) and the AI Search add-on ($89): $437 a month against an advertised entry price of $129. Core also caps at ten projects, so fifteen clients cannot sit on the entry plan at all.

Ahrefs and Semrush do not stack the same way. Brand Radar sits inside the Ahrefs core plans with five tracked AI prompts on Lite, ten on Standard and twenty on Advanced, and every paid Semrush tier includes AI search tracking, from 50 daily prompts on Starter to 200 on Advanced. So the cost question at both is not the add-on, it is the shape of the plan: one user per Ahrefs seat, and five websites on Semrush until Pro+ at $299.

Note: Ahrefs quotes wider Brand Radar tracking two ways. Its pricing page says from $199 a month, with custom prompt packages at $50, $100 and $250; its Brand Radar page quotes €358 for selected platforms and €654 for all of them. Both are on its own site, in different currencies, and we cannot reconcile them. Check what your account is quoted before budgeting.

Which one to choose

Buy a dedicated AI visibility tool if measuring AI citations is the job and you already have SEO tooling you are happy with. Profound and Peec go deepest; Otterly is the cheapest way to start at $29.

Add the module to your existing suite if you are already committed to Semrush or Ahrefs and the included prompt allowance covers you. Ahrefs reaches the widest range of surfaces, adding YouTube, TikTok and Reddit alongside the answer engines, though Profound lists more answer engines on Enterprise.

Buy an all-in-one that includes it if you are running client work and do not want to stitch two dashboards together, or if the same budget buying more matters. That is where Limecube sits, and Search Atlas too, with more breadth and tighter project caps.

One thing worth checking before you spend anything: if your robots.txt blocks the AI crawlers, no tool on this page can help, because the engines cannot read you in the first place. Controlling AI crawler access takes ten minutes and is free.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is an AEO tool?

    A tool that measures whether AI answer engines cite your website. Where a rank tracker tells you your position in Google results, an AEO tool asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews a question and records whether your brand is named and your domain linked in the answer. The category is also called AI visibility tracking or generative engine optimisation.

  • Which AEO tool tracks the most AI engines?

    It depends whether you count social. Profound lists the most answer engines at nine, but only on its Enterprise tier; its $99 Starter plan tracks ChatGPT alone. Ahrefs Brand Radar covers six surfaces plus YouTube, TikTok and Reddit mentions, which is the broadest spread if social matters to you: AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Gemini. Peec lets you choose three models on every paid plan, with eleven available only on Enterprise. Read the tier, not the headline: most roundups quote a tool ceiling next to its entry price.

  • Do any AEO tools track Claude?

    Few do. As of July 2026, Semrush, SE Ranking and Ahrefs Brand Radar do not list Claude among their tracked engines on their own product pages. Otterly sells Claude access as a paid add-on from $29 to $439 a month depending on tier. Limecube tracks Claude as standard alongside ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

  • How much do AEO tools cost?

    Standalone AI visibility trackers start around $29 to $99 a month: Otterly from $29, Peec from $95, Profound and SE Visible from $99. Among the SEO suites it now varies. Semrush includes AI search tracking in every paid tier from $139 a month, and Ahrefs includes Brand Radar in its core plans from $129 with five tracked prompts. SE Ranking still charges $89 a month on top of a $129 plan. At all three, tracking beyond the included allowance costs extra.

  • Is AI visibility included in Semrush and Ahrefs, or is it extra?

    Included at both, within a limit. Every paid Semrush tier covers AI search tracking, from 50 prompts daily on Starter to 200 on Advanced, and Ahrefs includes Brand Radar in its core plans with 5 tracked prompts on Lite, 10 on Standard and 20 on Advanced. Tracking more than that allowance is a separate purchase at either. SE Ranking is the outlier: its AI Search add-on is still $89 a month on top of a $129 or $279 plan.

  • Do I need a separate AEO tool if I already have an SEO tool?

    Increasingly not, if your suite is Semrush or Ahrefs, because both now include AI search tracking in the plan. Check the allowance rather than the line item: 20 tracked prompts on Ahrefs Advanced or 50 daily on Semrush Starter covers one brand, not a client list, and neither tracks Claude. If you are choosing fresh, an all-in-one that includes AI visibility avoids running two subscriptions and stitching two dashboards together.

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